COLORADO COLLEGE
PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT
Words of Wisdom
“Could the activity of
thinking as such, the habit
of examining whatever
happens to come to pass or
to attract attention,
regardless of results and
specific content, could this
activity be among the
conditions that make men
abstain from evil-doing?”
- Hannah Arendt
In This Issue
The Faculty since 2000
Class of 2018 Senior Essays
CC's Undergraduate
Philosophy Journal
Recent Faculty
Publications
Rick Furtak Interview
Cameron Pattison '18
Interview
Student Survey
Colloquium Series
Riley Scholars
Acknowledgements
Newsletter
ISSUE 1, FALL 2018
Philosophy's   
Newsletter Has
Arrived!
Welcome to the inaugural issue
of the CC Philosophy
Department's NEWSLETTER.  We
hope that this newsletter will
allow the Department to keep in
touch with our students, alumni,
and friends.  Send us news from
you to include in future issues!
Celebrate 50 Years with John Riker
In 1968, Colorado College hired a young philosopher who would go on to bring
philosophical reflection alive for generations of students - Professor John Riker.  Now,
50 years later, join us in recognizing John's ongoing engagement with challenging
questions.  On Thursday, October 11th, John will present the opening Philosophy
Colloquium lecture at 3:30 p.m. in Gaylord Hall, Worner Campus Center.  Then, as part
of the 2018 Homecoming, faculty members, former students, and John will give talks
celebrating this grand milestone from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Celeste Theater of the
Cornerstone Arts Center.  The Colloquium lecture is open to the public.  Sign up for
John's Homecoming event at https://preview.tinyurl.com/RikerDance. 
Keep in Touch
Students and parents often ask, what good is
a degree in philosophy?  Let us know by
telling your story about where philosophy
has led you. Send us your story about where
where you have gone since CC at
philosophy_lives@coloradocollege.edu. In
future issues, we want to tell your stories.
Philosophy since the
Millenium
Graduates from before 2000 may not be aware of how the Department
has changed and grown.  In the 1990s, the Department had six faculty
members: Professors Jane Cauvel, John Riker, Harvey Rabbin, Judith
Genova, and Jonathan Lee.  By 2000, Jane Cauvel and Harvey Rabbin had
retired, and over time several new colleagues were hired to join John,
Judy, and Jonathan: Professors Alberto-Hernandez-Lemus, Rick Anthony
Furtak, Dennis McEnnerney, Marion Hourdequin, and Helen Daly.

JOHN RIKER, as noted on p. 1, is celebrating his 50th year of teaching at

the College.  He continues to explore the ethical implications of
psychoanalytic thought, while teaching courses on ancient Greek, modern
European, and American philosophy.  He is author several works,
including "Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious" (1997), "Why It Is
Good to Be Good: Ethics, Kohut’s Self Psychology, and Modern Society"
(2010), and most recently, "Exploring the Life of the Soul: Philosophical
Reflections on Psychoanalysis and Self Psychology" (2017).  

JUDY GENOVA, who retired from the College in 2011, brought to the
curriculum courses focusing on twentieth-century analytic philosophy
and feminist philosophy.  Author of "Wittgenstein: A Way of Seeing" (1995)
and editor of "Power, Gender, Values" (1987), Professor Genova was an
active member of the Women’s Studies program, which she directed for
over a decade.

Diversity of interests has been the mark of the teaching and research of
JONATHAN LEE.  Jonathan has offered courses on Indian and Africana
philosophy, Lacanian psychoanalysis, continental and French philosophy,
sound art, speculative realism, and his first love, ancient Greek thought
and poetry.  In 1990, he published "Jacques Lacan," one of the first
English-language works on Lacan.  He also co-edited "I Am Because We
Are: Readings in Africana Philosophy" (1995, revised 2016), a pioneering
collection of African and African-American philosophy.

The first new colleague to join the department after the millennium was
ALBERTO HERNANDEZ-LEMUS, himself one of the first graduates of
Colorado College’s Comparative Literature program.  Alberto, who
became a full-time member of the department in 2003, has strong
interests in aesthetics, the cinema theory of Gilles Deleuze, and social and
political philosophy, particularly in relation to contemporary social
movements in the global South.  In the department, he regularly offers
courses on Latin American philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy and race,
and the history of philosophy.  In recent years, he has directed the Race,
Ethnicity, and Migration Studies program.

PAGE TWO
RICK ANTHONY FURTAK was hired as a regular faculty
member in philosophy in 2004. Rick's philosophical interests
include the moral psychology of the emotions, the relations
between philosophy and literature, and the tradition of
existential thought (especially Søren Kierkegaard and his
legacy).  His publications include "Wisdom in Love:
Kierkegaard and the Ancient Quest for Emotional Integrity"
(2005) and "Knowing Emotions: Truthfulness and Recognition
in Affective Experience" (2018).  Rick regularly teaches courses
on philosophy and emotions, philosophy of mind,
existentialism, Greek philosophy, philosophy and literature,
and the history of philosophy.  He served as department chair
from 2012-2016.

DENNIS McENNERNEY joined the faculty as a visitor in 2004

and became a full-time member of the department in 2017.
Dennis’ research focuses on political philosophy and critical
theory, especially the philosophical implications of identity
politics and resistance movements.  He has published articles
and collections on Frantz Fanon, French resistance
movements, James Tully, and John Rawls.  Dennis regularly
offers courses on contemporary political philosophy, critical
theory, identity and identity politics, and the history of
political philosophy.  He has served as co-director of the
Feminist & Gender Studies program.

The department expanded in 2006 with the hiring of MARION

HOURDEQUIN, a specialist in environmental philosophy.
Marion's current research focuses on climate ethics, climate
justice, and the social and ethical dimensions of ecological
restoration. She is the author of "Environmental Ethics: From
Theory to Practice" (2015) and co-editor of "Restoring Layered
Landscapes" (2015).   Her research and teaching interests
include ethics, comparative philosophy, animal studies, and
philosophy of science.  She was appointed department chair
in 2016 and has served as director of the Environmental
Program.

In 2011, HELEN DALY joined the department, strengthening its

commitment to logic and analytic thinking.  Her dissertation
research on vagueness combines “ordinary language”
sensibilities with a commitment to the value of classical logic
in the understanding of arguments.  She has wide-ranging
research interests, centered in analytic metaphysics and the
philosophy of language, including work on the metaphysics
and language of sex/gender, the metaphysical possibility of
heaven and hell, and the nature of insults.  Helen regularly
teaches courses in her research areas as well as in the history
of philosophy, logic and critical thinking, and cognitive
science.
                                                                                 PAGE THREE
 PHILOSOPHY SENIOR ESSAYS - CLASS OF 2018
Since 2010, the Philosophy major has required completion of a Senior Essay.  We ask students in their Senior Essay to investigate in
some depth the work of a significant philosopher or a challenging problem in philosophy.  These essays are written and rewritten in
one block under the superivsion of a faculty member, who has been appointed to that role by the Department as a whole.  Senior
Essays are limited to 15 pages and must be completed by the end of block 6.  In block 7, all Philosophy seniors enroll in the Senior
Seminar, a course in which the students then present their work orally in a setting that models an academic conference.  The class of
2018 wrote and then presented senior essays on the topics listed below.

Silas Babilonia, “Socrates, Plato, and the Cave: Death of the Real”

Philosophy Student
Nicholas Dobbs, “21st Century Stoicism: An Argument for the Sage’s Path”
Survey Responses:

Mira Fisher, “The Humormensch: Farcing the Void”

- WHY STUDY
   PHILOSOPHY?
Ben Garfin, “Rethinking Agency with Zhuangzi: Flowing with the River”

Matthew Harris, “Knowledge and Governance: Skepticism in the Zhuangzi” "To access other realms of
human experience ... and
keep the world new."
Andrew Hill, “Anthropocentrism and the Origins of Consciousness”

Michaela Miller, “The Ontological Argument: Can We Finally Say that God Really "We study philosophy in
     Exists?” order not to get a job and
then with the
levelheadedness and
Lachlan Nutting, “Individuality in the Objective Order of Values: An Examination of numerous perspectives the
     Max Scheler’s Ordo Amoris” discipline gives us, live and
perhaps even love--said
joblessness.  Just kidding ...
William Pak, “From the Aesthetic to the Ethical: Strip-Mining the Self, in a State of
I study philosophy to get
      Despair” closer to the significance
of things, and to maintain
Cameron Pattison, “Illusion and the Contest between Passion and Reason” a fresh, child-like
appreciation for the
oddities and incongruities
Joe Purtell, “Faith and Action: What Does It Mean to Try the Impossible?” of all types of life."

Lauren Robinson, “Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds: An Exploration of Meaningful

"Because it makes you
     Coincidences”
read well, and develops
useful skills, and is
Jared Russell, “Hope’s Role Within the Present” endlessly interesting."

Will Schneiger, “Threats of Replacement in Nuclear Catastrophes”

"Because everything is
philosophy!"
Antonio Soto, “The Existence of God”

"To create novelty."

Sam Stallings, “Bad Faith of Whiteness: Whiteness as Capital within the Colonial
     Matrix of Power”

Izzy Steucek, “Lingering with the Wonder of the World: Lessons from Hannah Arendt
     and Martin Heidegger”

Samuel White, “Behavioral Abnormality and the Social Experience of Agency”

PAGE FOUR
                         
THE COLORADO COLLEGE
UNDERGRADUATE
JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
Colorado College’s student
philosophy journal,
ANAMNESIS (ancient Greek
for "to call to mind"), was
conceived of three and one-
half years ago by philosophy
major Willow Mindich ’16. 
Launched with the help of
Professor Rick Furtak, the
Cutler Board of Publication,
the Dean’s Office, and a
student editorial board, the
journal took up the mission
of providing a forum for the
Colorado College
community to engage with
philosophy that was free
from overly-technical
language and obscure
topics.
From the first, the journal
invited submissions by
undergraduates writing on
philosophy from across the
nation.  The journal has
published essays by
students from California
Polytechnic University,
Boston College,
Appalachian State
University, and Bowdoin
College, as well as from
Colorado College students.
The 2018-19 editorial board
will issue its call for papers
grappling with
philosophical issues and
written in a clear,
nontechnical style later this
fall.
                            
Philosophy Student
Survey Responses:
- WHY STUDY
   PHILOSOPHY?
"To learn how to think
critically about the world."
"To experience the
paradoxical nature of our
existence which is essential to
humanity."
"I can never identify the chain
of events that led me to make
philosophy my focus in
school...  I've always been a
philosopher.  We've all always
been philosophers... How can
that be?  I think everyone
inherently studies and
practices philosophical
thinking every day (Who am
THE VOLUMES OF ANAMNESIS I?  What is my purpose?  How
ought I act?  How to treat
myself and other people?). I
The journal’s first volume, published in the spring of 2016,
think we humans are
contained two undergraduate essays as well as an perpetually in search of
interview with Shaun Nichols, professor of philosophy at answers for how to live our
the University of Arizona.  The second volume, issued a lives.  For me, as I have read
year later, was again composed of two student essays as and been introduced to
thinkers such as Nietzsche,
well as an interview with Professor John Riker on the
Gloria Anzaldua, Thich Nhat
semicentennial of his tenure at Colorado College.  The
Hanh, Sartre, Hume,
third volume, released last May, included three student Dostoyevski, I've found that
essays and an interview with Linda Martín Alcoff, most often it is the
professor of philosophy at the City University of New York philosopher who
Graduate Center.  All three issues are available on the contemplating and proposing
the most applicable theories
Anamnesis website,
who dominates my life. 
http://www.ccphil-anamnesis.com/the-journal/. Philosophy pervades every
aspect of our phenomenal
THE DISCUSSIONS world... I want to learn, spread,
and recreate the ideas put
forth by philosophers. 
The 2017-18 editorial board — philosophy majors Will
Philosophy is just where it is
Schneiger ’18, Mira Fisher ’18, Cameron Pattison ’18, and at for me."
Ethan Cutler ’19 — wanted to further engage students,
especially non-philosophy majors, in philosophical
discussion.  To this end, they inaugurated an open group
that met twice a month to discuss relevant philosophical
                               PAGE FIVE
topics.  Over twenty students from a range of disciplines
turned out to the first meeting for a lively discussion of
the proposition “Society needs noble lies.”
2018-19 EDITORIAL BOARD
This year's editors-in-chief will be Anne Daley, Natalie
TeSelle, and Lizzy Vian.  They can be contacted at
anamnesis@coloradocollege.edu
 PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT
Recent Faculty Books

Rick Anthony Furtak, KNOWING EMOTIONS: TRUTHFULNESS AND

RECOGNITION IN AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCE, Oxford University Press,
March 2018.

From the publisher: "Knowing Emotions attempts to clarify what kind of

truth may be revealed through emotion, and what can be known."

John Hanwell Riker, EXPLORING THE LIFE OF THE SOUL:

PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS ON PSYCHOANALYSIS AND SELF
PSYCHOLOGY, Lexington Books, February 2017.

From the publisher: "John Hanwell Riker develops and expands the
conceptual framework of self psychology in order to offer contemporary
readers a naturalistic ground for adopting an ethical way of being in the
world."

Jonathan Scott Lee and Fred Lee Hord (Mzee Lasana Okpara), eds., I AM
BECAUSE WE ARE: READINGS IN AFRICANA PHILOSOPHY, University of
Massachusetts Press, 1995, revised edition, April 2016.

From the publisher: "A major, canon-defining anthology, bringing

together writings by prominent black thinkers..., ma[king] the case for a
tradition of “relational humanism” distinct from the philosophical
preoccupations of the West."

Marion Hourdequin, ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: FROM THEORY TO

PRACTICE, Bloomsbury Academic, March 2015.

From the publisher: "ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS offers an up-to-date and

balanced overview of environmental ethics..., provides an historical
perspective on the relationship between humans and nature, and
explores the limitations and possibilities of classical ethical theories in
relation to the environment."
PAGE SIX
 Faculty Reflections

An Interview with
Rick Anthony Furtak
Interview by Silas Babilonia, class of 2018.

SB: What was the primary inspiration for your work?

RF: I was inspired to write this book by the fascinating yet perplexing
world of human emotions, and I wanted to follow the lead of other
philosophers who have made insightful contributions to this field of
interdisciplinary research.

SB: Are there any specific philosophical movements or philosophers

you are working in conversation with?

RF: Important resources for my book are found in phenomenology,

especially in the work of such authors as Martin Heidegger, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, and Max Scheler.  Overall, my book cites a diverse
array of other texts.

SB: What role do emotions play in the context of everyday life?

RF: It is through our emotions that we perceive meaning in life: our

emotions orient us toward significant values and reveal what matters
most to us.  This is why they are such an important mode of
experience.

SB: How has Colorado College and the Philosophy Department

supported your writing process?

RF: CC and the Philosophy Department provide a stimulating

intellectual environment, and they also supported me in the form of
allowing time for me to write – through a sabbatical as well as my
non-classroom blocks.

SB: What was the most surprising thought, discovery, or insight you
had while working on the book?

RF: One surprising discovery was that prominent empirical research

on emotion has been widely misinterpreted, so my book aims to
reverse this trend and to set the record straight.
                                                                                            PAGE SEVEN
 Student Reflections
An Interview with
Cameron Pattison '18,
Editor-in-Cheif of ANAMNESIS
Interview by Silas Babilonia, class of 2018.

SB: What has your experience been like working as editor-in-chief of

ANAMNESIS?

CP: I’ve really enjoyed working as editor-in-chief of ANAMNESIS because I path, for I had thought I’d
think it is one of the few sites on campus that encourages philosophic be a scientist of one kind
thinking outside of class.  With the discussion group – which we added to or another before I was
the program this year – you start to get a sense of how philosophy can be lured in by political
participated in in life beyond school. science, and then
ambushed by philosophy.
SB: What do you look for in papers that prospective writers should know  I can hardly imagine the
about? person I’d be if I had never
engaged in philosophy at
CP: When reading over the papers, we are – broadly speaking – looking for CC.
meaningful insights into how we live our lives and understand the world
around us.  Now, this is intentionally broad, because I think that these SB: Do you have any
insights can be accomplished by way of innumerable methods.  It might be current plans for after
best accomplished for some using an analytic paper that takes apart a graduation?
single author, or it may be done by way of a story.  We really don’t mind
which method is preferred, but only insist that the writer finds the paper CP: My plan is to return
truly worth reading. home to Vermont to live in
a cabin I built there right
SB: What direction do you see ANAMNESIS going into the future? after high school.  I have
applied for a couple jobs
CP: I don’t see the journal itself changing much... However, I think that the teaching, but I will
discussion group could expand significantly.  It has a lot of promise and is a probably end up working
fairly unique idea on campus – viz., a discussion group that focuses on and for a farm there. I find
debates propositions without assigned readings, in the hopes of engaging building projects to be
what people think and believe about a given proposition.  I think that extremely meaningful,
oftentimes we’re all too quick to defer to the authority of the great minds, satisfying, and
but we do this enough in class; and our own beliefs and arguments entertaining, so I think I’ll
supporting our beliefs get too little exercise. be building new things
too, starting with a pizza
SB: What role has philosophy played in your time at Colorado College? oven, a developed spring,
and a significant
CP: I find, “what role has philosophy played in your time at CC?” a hard expansion to the orchard I
question to answer, because I am inclined to say that it has played the started planting this past
major role that shaped my entire experience here.  I have always been summer.  With any luck,
academically engaged, but philosophy in its riddles and insights has turned it’ll be a pastoral paradise
tasks that were once satisfying – i.e., finishing homework – into essential – but also a time to read
parts of my day and life.  Also, philosophy has certainly changed my life and write, and to think
PAGE EIGHT about graduate school.
                     
MORE FROM THE SURVEY OF THE SENIOR CLASS OF 2018

Question: What Is Most Important to the Philosopher?

Beauty
12%
Nothing
25%

Truth
25%

Everything
Meaning 25%
13%

THE PHILOSOPHY COLLOQUIUM SERIES

Inaugurated in 2006, the Philosophy Colloquium series has enabled the Department to offer
lectures and seminars by leading and emerging scholars working in a wide range of
philosophical discourses.  Colloquium lectures typically take place on Thursdays at 3:30 p.m
and are open to the public.  This year's preliminary lecture schedule includes:

Block 2: Thursday, 11 September - John Riker, Colorado College, “Philosophy and

      Psychoanalysis: Re-Vitalizing Contemporary Living” (Gaylord Hall, Worner Campus Center).

Block 3: Thursday, 1 November - Mary Ann Cutter, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs,
     "Managing Uncertainty in Medicine:  What Philosophy Can Teach Us" (Max Kade Theatre,
      Armstrong Hall).

Block 6: Tuesday, 5 March - Sharon Krishek, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Title TBA (Bemis
      Great Hall).

Block 7: Thursday, 28 March - Jana Mohr Lone & Sara Goering, University of Wasington, "Why
      Philosophy for Children Matters — Both to Philosophy and to Children" (South Hall
      Commons)

LET US KNOW YOUR NEWS!

In future issues of the Philosophy Department Newsletter, we hope to include news about our
alumni.  Please let us know what you have been doing by writing to the Department at:

                                        philosophy_lives@coloradocollege.edu
                                                                                                                                     PAGE NINE
 Philosophy Sponsors Riley Scholars-in-Residence

The CC Philosophy Department embraces diversity in philosophical inquiry,

offering more courses in "diverse" areas than do almost all major university
philosophy programs.  The College has supported our commitment to the
diversification of philosophy by enabling us to hire two Riley Scholars-in-
Residence in recent years.  Riley Scholars, who are recent recipients of
doctoral degrees from underrepresented backgrounds (or who are near the
end of their doctoral studies) are hired for one or two years at full entry-
level salaries.  The program, which has been developed in collaboration
with a consortium of liberal arts colleges, aims to familiarize Riley Scholars
with liberal arts teaching and bolster faculty diversity.  The scholarship
provides recipients with experience teaching (typically two or three blocks
per year) and significant support for their research and writing, thereby
increasing their chances of success on the academic job market.

In 2018-19, the Department is happy to welcome back to Colorado College

YONG-DOU (MICHAEL) KIM, a 2005 sum cum laude graduate of the College. 
Michael is completing his dissertation. "Image and Phenomenon: For a
Critique of Appearance," at Villanova University. He has taught as a part-
time visitor for the past few years and will offer courses this year on
Feminist Philosophies, Ethics, and Formal Logic.

In 2015-16 and 2016-17, the Department hosted CAMISHA RUSSELL, a

graduate of Penn State University.  While at CC, Camisha offered courses on
the Epistemology of Race and Gender; Race, Gender, and Bio-Ethics;
Feminist Philosophies; Philosophy and Race; and "The Hunger Games" and
Social Philosophy.  After two years at the College, Camisha was hired as a
tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Oregon.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Philosophy Department is indebted to SILAS BABILONIA '18, who
not only conducted the interviews and the survey of the class of 2018
for this issue, but also developed the initial prototype for the
NEWSLETTER.  His work made possible this publication.

The final version of the NEWSLETTER was assembled by Dennis

McEnnerney, with the editorial oversight of the full Philosophy
Department faculty.

Finally, the Department is grateful to RORY STADLER, our dedicated

administrative assistant, without whom the Department could not
function.

PAGE TEN